Long Story Short

The stereotype of the lonely singleton is over. A new study has shown thatbeing single and happy is just a matter of whether or not you’re anxious of conflicts with other people.

Long Story

Single people often joke that they’re happy to be free of the drama, arguments and passive aggressiveness that comes with relationships.

Smug couples assume that this is just the cover-up single people use when what they really mean is: “Having to always make my own cups of tea and waking up spooning my duvet every morning is making me genuinely fear that I’ll die alone”.

There have been endless studies telling us that couples are happier than singles. But now, single people officially have permission to be the smug ones, because research gathered from over 4,000 New Zealanders hasfinally proven otherwise.

“It’s a well-documented finding that single people tend to be less happy compared to those in a relationship, but that may not be true for everyone,” said the study’s lead researcher Yuthika Girme.

The study found that people with high “avoidance social goals” – in other words, people who hate conflict and confrontation and try to avoid it all costs – were just as happy being single as other participants who were in a relationship and the frequent battles that come with that.

According to the study, published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, this could be because being single could remove some the anxiety people with these high avoidance social goals experience whenarguing with their other half.

But before you go and cancel that date and throw out your razor: it’s not all good news for singletons, unfortunately. The single people who took part in the study that weren’t bothered at all about conflict reported to be less happier than their coupled-up counterparts.

So the lesson we can draw from this is that if you’re not bothered about blazing rows over who last took the bin out, you’re happier in a relationship. If you’d rather scratch out your own eyes than ask your girlfriend to move over onto her side of the bed – keep the bed to yourself.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: What about people who have a chronic fear of sharing food? Are they happier alone, too?

Disrupt Your Feed: The desire to avoid an argument at all costs is engrained in the British way of life. Does this mean most of us are happier single?

Drop This Fact: The most common cause for arguments among couples is money.